Grapple for hoisting and conveying machines.



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THE/R ATTORNEY;

M. R. COLBY 1. STEWART. GHAPPLE FOR HOSTING AND CQNVEYING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 21. i915.4

* fED STA-.Tas rar MARK R. COLBY, F PORTLAND, OREGON AND STEWART, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO,

ASSIGNORS TO THE BROWN HOISTING MACHINERY COMPANY, OF. CLEVEHI'AI'tlD,Iy

OHIO, A CORPORATION.

GII/APPLE FOR I-IOISTING AND CONVEYING MACHINES.

To-all whom z't may concern Be it known that'we, MARK R. COLBY, a citizenof the United States, residing at the .city of Portland, in the county of Multnomah and State of Oregon, and JAMES STEWART, a subject of Great Britain, residingin the city of Cleveland, in the county of- Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Grapples for Hoisting and Conveying Machines, of which we hereby declare the following. to bea full, clear, and exact description, reference being. made therein to drawings/accompanying' andr made a part of the specification, wherein the same mechanical parts are designated by the same numerals in each instance.

The invention belongs generally to the vdesigned to be vsuspended from or connected to a trolley, which is movably mounted on neoverhead trackway, in order to thereby grapple gross loads, like lumber, leather or cotton, which are prepared, for the most Apart, in piles, packages or bales, of convenient size and dimensions for the process, and cari'J the .same to given points for deposit.

This apparatus has a wide field of use- `fulness in connection with the handling of lumber onfa large scale at mills, mill-yards,

-transfer and storage places, and the illustration of thc improvement in question for thepl1rpose of this application, is accordingly of that improvement as applied to operations in that special' department of the art to which it relates. As thus applied, the machine, as a whole, is characterized by an overhead trackway, generally in the form of 'an' I-beam, extending, between terminals, above the area or space to be served, a main trolley duly .mounted thereon, and lumbergrappling and hoisting mechanism operatively connected thereto. As commonly made thislast named feature comprises a hoisting-head olfrectangular form, 'horizontally suspended fromits ends by ropes, to corresponding winding ends on the trolleyframe, and a rectangular frame rotatably hung from this head and provided, at each corner, with downwardly extending hook- -arms by which the grapple is made. Said Ahook-arms are sometimesrigidly connected to the frame at their upper ends with grap- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 17, 1916.

pling-.hooks pivoted to their ylower.ends, or,

being integrally hooked at said ends, are

pivoted to the frames at their upper'ends.

In either form, said arms, and their hook movements, are always 1n the same vertical,

plane withv the sides of the frame from which they depend, and ineonsequence, although the hook-arms, or thehooks, themf selves, .may be retracted'so as to avoidv the y usual skids or cross-pieces upon which thepackages rest', they nevertheless will remain normal and with but slight clearance with respect to .the same at' all` stages 'of the i grappling operations. There is, accordmgly, a resultant liability that the arms will contact with, the top of the load, when said frame is loweredto make a grapple, so that repeated up and' down movements of the same, and consequent loss of time, are required, before the hook-arms are in position to freely passdown the sides of the load, as designed.

The purpose of the present invention is to v i obviate the difficulties of spotting a grapple of the kind in question, by the simple' change in detail which we will now point out.

In` the drawings Figure 4l is an indicative illustration, in side elevation, of af machine containing said improvement, the dotted lines showing the relative places of the arts involved both when the retraction o 'the arms is effected by the down-,fall of the akctuating bars for the same, andby an up- `ward pull thereof. Fig. 2 is a plan of a rectangular grapple-frame provided with our. hook-arms at each corner, Fig. 3 1s an enlarged view of the hingeconnection of,

said arms to said frame, and, Fig. 4 isa view of said hinged-connection, at right angles to the line A, A, in Fig. v3, in the d1- rectioh of theA arrow.

Referring to the drawings 1 indicates an overhead tramway of the `I -beamtype. Movably mounted thereon by its wheels 2 is a trolley 3, from'which hangs the operators cab 4. Windingdrl'lms 5 are located transversely of the trolleys with cables f6 and 7 arranged'in pairs thereon. These,

respectively, extend tol and around correspondingly arranged sheaves on the vtrolley, downwardly 'to and around sheaves at the ends of a hoisting head 8 and thence, upwardly it is assumed., to anchorages on the trolley above.

Below the hoisting-head, and, usually, in rotatable relation therewith, is the grapple proper. ln this case, as will loe apparent,

it is made up of a rectangular grapplefranie Qsuspended from the head 8 by an open center connection indicated by the dotted lines, through which a grapple-rope l0, may pass downwardly ythrough apen tures ll, ll, in the frame to hook-arm leverbars or links l2, and, upwardly, over suitably located sheaves, to a point in the cab 4: for the application of hand, or other power..

At each corner oi' the frame are orly depending hook-arms 13, pivotally con-v nected to the sides thereof by the hingepins or pivots l/l. rlhese arms are straight angle pieces which terminate, at their lower ends in oppositely disposed integral hooks l5. These liooliai'iiis are arranged, at said corners, at the longer side of the i in such a pivotal relation that -i oy will he vertical when in their designed (rrapplinn places, but, when retracte from, and out of such relation, they will open around. their hinges away from the vertical, and, assume a diagonal position with respect to atransverse vertical plane through the :trame itself. This peculiarity ot movement hy said inp; the requisite angular direction to the hinge-pins or pivots lfl, that is 'to say7 locating; them in their hearings at any denections, and, thereafter, to hc brought up or returned to their normal perpendicular 'position with the upper face of the hooks proper in full hearing beneath the skids under the load to he raised. lt is obvious that the desired outward movement of the hook-arms around their hinged connections is entirely consistent with a construction Where the hinges themselves are pitched at an angle with a horizontal plane on Athe frame, instead of lying' in such plane, as shown. in 4the drawings. The hooks proper, at the lower ends 'of the arms, are preferably turned at normal relations to said arms as Aa Whole. load in the process of lowering' the grr-apple 'astride the same, is insured hy the forego ingl movement, and, at the same time, by slanting attitude of the hook-arms the A Wider clearance from the.

naciste latter will serve to guide the grapple, as a whole, to said operative relation to the load to be hoisted. As a means of actuating,y the' hook-arms, in and out of position around their pivots, the drawings show and signify, the connection together of each pair of' hook-arms on a side of the frame, by the leverbare or links l2, which are pivoted, respectively, to the arms at intermediate points on the same, and are jointedly conuected together at their other, or inner ends, at 17. These hars should be of the saine length, which should also be such that they will he in one and the same straight line when 'the arms to Which they are connected occupy their normal depending,r lposition with respect to said frame. The lever-bars, furthermore, should be of such weightA and relative dimensions that, when free to descend hy force of ,gravity around said pivotal connections,- their leverage Will over come the inertial of the hoolcarms 'to which 'they are attracted, and thereby Withdraw said arms, from their normal, haclrwardly around their hinges, to the degree necessaryg to clear the skids. or cross-pieces, beneath the load, during the lowering; stage of the grappling; movement. The reverse movement is controlled from the cah l, by pulline' in the lever-bar rope l0, attached to said bars, at ll, 'for 'the purpose. This arrangement may, ot course, bevaried in any suitable manner, as, for instance, the arms or linlrs 12, may be actuated upwardly-as indicated by the upper diagonal dotted lines in l-3oy tension on the rope l0, instead of downwardly. by their ovvn Weight, as described. which vvvill directly reverse 'the l said described action, since the opening, or retraction. of the hook-arms Will then be eiiected positively, While the closing will occur, automatically, hy simply releasing' said tension.

Having; thus described our invention that which We claim and Wish 'to protect by Letters-Patent is A grapple comprising the combination ot a. supporting' frame. and hook-arms at the U0 sides or' the same, said hoolearms being,T pivotally connected 'to the frame at their upy y per ends at predetermined angles with respect to a horizontal and a transverse ver# tical plane through said iframe, substan- 115 tiallv as shown and described.

MARK ll., CLBY. JillllllS STEWART, for Colby: MILLER, DEAN 'VON Acnnn `Witnesses for Stewart:

L. P. luiers, el, F. Lotions.

llitnesses lil. ld. 

